


Sleep Well, Little Brother

by Fififjonka



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-01-18
Packaged: 2018-01-09 04:30:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,536
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fififjonka/pseuds/Fififjonka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THOR: THE DARK WORLD. Based on the second movie, the scene slightly changed. Thor remembers his brother while watching him die in his arms.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep Well, Little Brother

"Loki!"

The black blade impaled him through the chest, glimmering with blood. He froze with pain and shock, opening his eyes wide.

"No...no!"

Thor rolled over, getting to his fallen brother. He wouldn't believe this was the end. Not for Loki. And not like this. Not now. Not now when he found him again...

"You fool, why didn't you listen..."

He knelt down beside him, carefully lifting him into his arms. Loki's eyes were roving around with anxiety. Their looks met and Thor felt a painful stab in his heart. Suddenly he forgot about everything that laid between him and Loki. It was his younger brother now. And he was dying.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."

"Shh, that's fine, don't talk. You'll be OK."

Loki was looking up at him and Thor knew, as well as his brother knew, that wasn't true. Thor held him tightly as he felt him shiver and saw the blackness crawling over his skin. There was nothing he could do to stop it, to save him... Just when he'd finally broken the wall his brother built, he'd lost him.

"I didn't protect you..."

"What?"

"I didn't protect you, I'm sorry, brother. I could have done something, I could have..."

He felt a faint grip on his forearm. Loki smirked wearily. "There was nothing you could do..."

"I should have left you in the cell, you at least wouldn't get yourself stabbed..." Thor said, trying to force a smile. Loki's grip loosened and Thor caught his arm before falling on the ground.

"It's not your fault..." Loki said, his voice getting silent. Thor felt his throat closing and he just gulped, holding his brother even tighter. He was looking into his brother's hazing eyes, feeling his life vanishing, remembering a night years ago, at the time when he and his younger brother were still close.

_Dim moonlight was seeping through the curtains covering a high window. It was about midnight and the night was silent. The palace was sleeping, except for one person. Thor was awake, sitting in an armchair next to his bed, deep in thoughts. He didn't usually have problems with sleeping. It was the talk he had with his father that was bothering the young prince. He told him many things Thor didn't like and even more he didn't understand. Why wouldn't his father just tell him he would be a great king? Why he kept repeating all the things about time, responsibility and experience? And when Thor finally asked if he would be a good king, his father just told him he hadn't had an idea about kingship yet and it would take far more time for him to fully understand it. And then he sent him to his room._

_Didn't he believe in him? Maybe he didn't. Maybe he really wouldn't be a good king. His father perhaps thought he wasn't strong enough. Or brave enough. Or smart enough. Simply not a king in his eyes._

_So was it Loki? No, his father couldn't think about making Loki a king. Thor had always felt his father was subtly suggesting he'd been planning to make Thor a king. Did he change his mind then?_

_Thor stood up. He couldn't think of sleep at the moment. He felt his stomach hurt a little as he was troubled with his father's lack of faith. He walked over his room and silently opened the wide door, crossing the marble corridor and stopping in front of another door. Surely he wouldn't mind being waken up. It wouldn't be the first time anyway._

_He knocked on the door and entered without further waiting._

_"Are you awake, brother? I couldn't sleep so I -"_

_He stopped and cautiously focused on the bed. He heard Loki was panting and shifting in his covers, his abrupt breathing echoed in the room. He walked closer and saw his brother was frowning, clutching his blanket in his hand and there was an expression of fear and anxiety in his face. For the first moment Thor would rather walk away. He had never seen his brother like this. He always seemed so calm and collected, even cold sometimes._

_"Stop, please..." Loki mumbled with pain in his voice. Thor moved closer._

_"Loki? Loki, wake up. You're having a bad dream, wake up..."_

_Thor grabbed his brother's arm and shook it. Loki's skin was sweaty but icy cold. That made Thor even more afraid. Why was he so cold? He shook him again._

_"Loki, wake up!"_

_Loki snapped awake then, sitting up quickly and looking around with wide eyes. He searched the room and as he saw his brother beside him, he frowned a little with surprise._

_"Thor?"_

_"Yes..." Thor turned, lighting up a massive candle on the bedside table. As the light touched Loki's face, Thor noticed he was even paler than usual and there were dark purplish circles under his eyes. He was still breathing heavily and his hands were shaking as he tried to wipe the sweat from his face._

_Thor was silent. No matter how worried he was about him, he let him to decide whether he wanted to talk about it or not. Loki kept watching his own sheets for a few seconds, trying to calm himself down. He was shaking violently with cold and Thor took a blanket, wrapping it around his brother and trying to warm him._

_"Loki, you're freezing..." he muttered with worries. He hated to see his brother like this. So... vulnerable. In the dark robes he was wearing, he looked even thinner than he was, and as Thor was holding him, he felt him shiver. He knew Loki was smart, maybe even smarter than he was. He knew he was a very good swordsman, nimble and swift. He knew about Loki's wit and his quick mind. But yet there were times he could see his fragility. It was hard to explain but it made Thor fairly protective over his brother._

_Loki relaxed slightly and covered his face with one hand, breathing in._

_"Are you feeling better?" Thor asked and Loki nodded._

_"Thank you."_

_"Nah," Thor said, moving away from him a bit. "That's fine. I was just worried about you, you don't look very well."_

_"Yes, I know," Loki said and smirked bitterly. "It's just these nightmares I have. But I'll be fine tomorrow."_

_Thor raised an eyebrow._

_"You mean you have them like... regularly?"_

_"Pretty often," Loki agreed._

_"What are they about?"_

_Loki stayed silent and hesitated, his green eyes hazed as he was remembering._

_"There's a man I don't know, every time. Tall and with blue skin and piercing eyes. He looks right through me like he knew me but I have never seen his face. He touches me and I can't move. I feel the ice in my veins. It seeps through me, paralysing me and the man is watching me..."_

_Loki paused and looked back at his brother._

_"And then I see you and our father. You walk towards me with a sword in your hand while our father is watching. I always believe you are there to help me but then... you stab me."_

_Loki fell silent and added in a more formal tone: "That's when I usually wake up and I feel so cold."_

_Thor was listening and suddenly felt like a cold hand touched his own heart._

_"Why didn't you tell me?"_

_Loki didn't answer and Thor repeated the question._

_"Why didn't you tell me, Loki?"_

_"It's not something I would be proud of. Why would you be interested in my dreams? And I don't think it's important anyway."_

_"What?"_

_Thor shook his head._

_"You think I wouldn't care that my brother is having nightmares about being killed by my hand? Why would you even think that? And that dream definitely means something, Loki. It's coming back for a reason. You should tell our father."_

_"No!"_

_Loki raised his voice with urgency and looked him in the eyes._

_"Promise you won't tell him. It's my business. I can deal with my nightmares just fine. Father doesn't have to know. He is a king, I don't want to add any trouble."_

_"You're his son, he's concerned about you just as I am. You wouldn't be adding any trouble, if there's something hurting you like this, father would want to know."_

_"Yes..." Loki said silently, shifting his eyes to the big window._

_"And he wouldn't be surprised it's coming from me and not you. Oh, poor Loki is having bad dreams, maybe he still needs to sleep in his mother's bed."_

_"You certainly can't think he would react like that," Thor argued but Loki just smirked._

_"If you think it would make you look weak -"_

_Loki turned at him with an unpleasant smile._

_"You mean weaker than his precious Thor is?"_

_The way he said that made Thor frown with a bit of anger._

_"He doesn't make a difference between me and you."_

_"Oh, that's what you think?"_

_Thor opened his mouth but suddenly he felt Loki was right. There was a difference. A very small difference but yet Loki was able to feel it. Yes, their father loved them both but preferred Thor over Loki. Thor knew Loki would want to be a king. And he knew his brother was smart enough to understand his father wouldn't make him a king as long as Thor was around._

_"That's what I think," he said then. Loki was staring at him and at the moment Thor knew Loki saw in his eyes the truth._

_"Well, then it must be true," Loki said and looked away. "Just don't tell him. I don't want him to know."_

_Thor was doubtful about that but he knew he wouldn't go against his brother's wish._

_"Fine..." he said silently. "I won't tell him. As long as you tell me."_

_Loki nodded and Thor easied, allowing himself a small smile._

_"Deal then," he said and Loki returned the smile, looking considerably better. Colour returned to his pale face and the circles under his eyes were vanishing._

_"So, why did you come to me?" he asked and Thor waved his hand. Loki narrowed his eyes slightly._

_"Oh, come on, Thor. I know you love me but you don't usually come to my room without a reason. Did you want to read a bedtime story?"_

_"Hey!" Thor threw a pillow at Loki and his brother laughed._

_"I bet you did, you little nipper!"_

_Thor made a face at him and sat down on the bed then, resting his arms on his knees._

_"It doesn't matter anymore..."_

_"Of course it does," Loki said. "I told you my story, now you tell me yours."_

_As Thor kept hesitating, Loki slipped down the bed, walking over him, wearing the sheet as a cloak._

_"Oh, why is he hesitating, the mighty son of Odin? What is burdening his heart so much? Perhaps a woman he fell in love with? Or his hammer isn't as shiny as it used to be? Maybe it's the new haircut what's filling his soul with sorrow."_

_"Stop making fun of me, it's serious!"_

_"Hm..."_

_Loki put on a mocking stern face, nodding slowly._

_"Did someone steal your golden slippers?"_

_"I said stop it!"_

_"I will stop it once you tell me."_

_"Right then! I think you're going to love this, actually. My father told me I know nothing about kingship and basically I'm no king in his eyes. So maybe you could rethink your idea about it."_

_Loki was silent for a minute but Thor saw a smile spreading on his brother's face. He was shaking his head with closed eyes._

_"You surely know how to lift a rock, Thor, but sometimes you don't get even the most obvious thing."_

_"If that should have lifted my spirit, it didn't."_

_"Do you know what our father sees when he looks at you? He sees a young man with the desire to rule, using his strength and his charms to do that. In a quite idealistic way. But that's not what a king should be like. A king needs to think first and act after. Our father knows you would be a great king but he also knows there are plenty of things for you to learn yet. By saying things like this he just wants you to see it for yourself, to learn all of this, to be a good king, true king, to really understand it means much much more than you think right now."_

_Thor was watching his brother for the whole time, starting to feel stupid for not grasping the facts much sooner. He recognized a hint of jealousy in his brother's voice, but he could see Loki was trying to minimise it as much as he could._

_"But don't feel bad," Loki said then. "You're just slow sometimes, that's all."_

_"That's enough!"_

_Thor pushed his brother onto the bed and into the cushions, pretending he wanted to choke him with a pillow. Loki was fighting and then suddenly he went slack and stopped moving. Thor's heart raced. Did he kill him? How would he explain to his father and mother he killed his brother with a pillow? He removed the pillow immediately, hoping to revive him somehow._

_"What...!"_

_Thor jumped up with eyes wide open, stumbling over a chair a falling on his back with a yelp. There was a sea serpent's head on his brother's shoulders. Then, in a second, the head changed back into Loki's, who was laughing so much that tears were leaking from his eyes._

_"You... should... have seen... yourself!" he exclaimed, wiping his tears away. Thor smirked but started laughing as well._

_"You're getting better with that, you know," he said and Loki grinned._

_"Yes, so I could scare you even more next time."_

_"We'll see..."_

_They were silent for a moment and Thor tilted his head a little, looking thoughtfully at his brother._

_"You know what? No matter what our father thinks or not, you would be a great king. That's what I think."_

_Loki glared back at him, surprised, tears of joy still glimmering in his eyes. He didn't say anything but Thor saw in his face he pushed the right button._

_"So... I think I'm going back to bed..."_

_He stood up, hearing the steps of his brother behind him. He turned at him in front of the door._

_"Thanks, Loki," he said simply. His brother nodded._

_"I thank you."_

_Loki raised an arm, resting it on Thor's forearm. Thor leaned, embracing him in a brief hug._

_"Sleep well."_

_"You too..."_

And he was holding him again, watching him passing away. Loki closed his eyes, breathing in fitfully, his body shivering. Thor leaned above, embracing him in his arms. Even after all the things that happened, they stayed brothers, they were always brothers. This was still the Loki who was trying to make him laugh when he was in a bad mood. It was still the same Loki, the same brother he loved.

"Farewell, brother..." he heard him whisper. And he knew he was gone. But he wouldn't go away. He would stay, holding him in his arms.

"Sleep well, my brother..."

 


End file.
